An introduction to the study of Federal government, by Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart, has just appeared. The work is in two parts, the first a short history and the second an appendix which is equal to the preceding part in length and value. The first chapter treats of the fundamental conceptions of the state and sovereignty, of nonfederal relations between states, and of the nature classification and political conditions of federal governments. Then follow short sketches of the ancient and mediaeval confederations and more detailed accounts of the four principal federations of today, the United States, Switzerland, Germany and Canada. The chapter on the Latin-American confederations, giving brief notices of the leagues of this century in Central and South America, including the Brazilian Republic, concludes the history. Although the text takes up hardly seventy-five pages, it is so fully annotated with references and bibliographies that it is an index for a deep study of the subject.

The appendices contain, first and foremost, a conspectus of the four federal constitutions of the federations named above arranged in parallel form; a key for finding the separate constitutions from this conspectus: and a bibliography of federal government. A full index is added.

The whole constitutes a complete reference book, arranged in an admirably systematic and accessible form. The index suggests how valuable one would be in the author's Topical Outline for his history courses. This monograph will be used by Dr. Hart's classes; it is intended to be preliminary to a more elaborate work on federal government.

[Harvard Historical Monographs: No. 2-An Introduction to the Study of Federal Government by A. B. Hart, Ph, D., Boston: Ginn and Co, 1891.]